Pictured, from left, are Pierceton Town Attorney Tammy Keirn and Clerk-Treasurer Myra Mast. InkFreeNews photo by Liz Shepherd.

By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

PIERCETON — Pierceton Town Council discussed changes to its employee handbook and adopted its 2024 budget during special meetings on Thursday, Oct. 12.

Prior to the council’s special meetings, Clerk-Treasurer Myra Mast and Town Attorney Tammy Keirn had a virtual meeting with the consultant rewriting the town’s employee handbook. Some areas of inconsistencies pointed out by the consultant were presented to the council for consideration.

Aside from council, Mast, and Keirn, Pierceton Town Marshal Jim Bumbaugh and Town Superintendent Casey Boggs attended the meeting.

Per the consultant’s recommendation, vacation benefits, paid holidays, bereavement leave, and life and AD&D insurance will now all begin after 90 days of an employee beginning to work for the town. The current handbook has different starting points for all of these benefits, thus the change for consistency.

Council also discussed if Election Day would serve as a paid holiday for only some town employees or all. The council voted to only close the clerk’s office on that day instead of all the town’s departments, but agreed to allow employees working on Election Day time during working hours to go and vote when applicable.

Part of the updates the consultant made to the town’s employee handbook include an improved section for drug and alcohol use/testing. Council discussed the possibility of adding language regarding random drug testing for employees, but decided it was unnecessary due to the small number of people the town employs.

Drug testing would only take place after a job is offered to a prospective employee, if there is reasonable suspicion to test an employee, and post-accident or injury.

The consultant also recommended the time sheet hourly employees use to record time worked must be updated to include the time-frames worked versus the total number of hours for each day. Council agreed with this recommendation.

Regarding the town’s police officers, the consultant recommended council revisit its policy on treating officers as exempt versus non-exempt due to the number of officers employed by the town. The consultant recommended an 86-hour, 14-day work period for police as allowed by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Keirn said this potential change was not a requirement for the town, but a recommendation from the consultant since that was the standard from the FLSA.

The council discussed possibly changing this in 2022 when revising the town’s salary ordinance, but decided to do an 80-hour, 14-day work period for police officers and also make them non-exempt. This means any hours over 80 would be paid overtime for officers.

The council decided to keep its policy the same, leaving police officers as non-exempt with an 80-hour, 14-day work period.

Keirn also noted an addition on workplace monitoring was included in the handbook.

Following discussion on the employee handbook, the council addressed legal matters regarding litigation against a former Pierceton Police officer.

In August 2022, the council pursued legal action against Ryan Piper after he resigned one year and eight months before his contract with the town was set to expire. Piper left PPD in December 2021 to work for the Warsaw Police Department.

Through an agreement with the town, Piper agreed to pay the Town of Pierceton $20,000 in liquidated damages if he terminated his employment within four years after taking the oath of office as a full-time police officer.

Keirn asked if the council would be willing to resolve the litigation for the principal amount of the contract, with attorney’s fees incurred during the legal process to be waived. If a settlement is reached, the town would receive half of the payment in December, and the second half in January 2024. Council agreed to the resolution.

The town also adopted its 2024 budget, which totals $1,349,539. This breaks down as follows: $15,000 in the rainy day fund; $518,016 in the general fund; $20,500 in the local road and street fund; $135,900 in the motor vehicle highway fund; $110,000 in the cumulative bridge and street fund; $5,440 in the continuing education fund; $15,200 in the park fund; $15,000 in the park non-reverting fund; $10,000 in the building demolition fund; $8,000 in the cumulative capital improvement fund from cigarette tax; $15,000 in the cumulative capital development fund; $65,000 in county economic development income tax; $211,000 in the redevelopment general fund; $3,866 in the opioid settlement restricted fund; $1,657 in the opioid settlement unrestricted fund; and $200,000 in the American Rescue Plan Act fund.

The council’s next regular meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 13, at the Pierceton Community Building.